April 30, 2025 • 52 mins
Dr. Lauren Davis takes us on an extraordinary journey from medical resident to holistic maternal health advocate in this captivating conversation about birth choices, postpartum healing, and the powerful integration of conventional and functional medicine.
Originally trained as an osteopathic physician & family medicine, Dr. Davis's perspective on birth and maternal health transformed dramatically after experiencing both a hospital birth during her medical residency and later, an "orgasmic" home birth attended by her physician husband. Her candid comparison of these experiences reveals profound insights about how birth environments affect physiology. "We know, for a woman's body and her physiology, all mammals have a reflex. When we are fearful, when we don't feel comfortable, what happens is that the cervix begins to close," she explains, illuminating how hospital settings can inadvertently trigger fear responses that complicate birth.
The stark contrast between her experiences—a hospital birth with a third-degree tear versus a gentle home birth where "I didn't even push, he pushed himself out"—sparked a career transformation. As a breastfeeding medicine specialist and founder of Latched, Nourished Thriving, Dr. Davis now addresses the critical yet overlooked aspects of postpartum recovery through a functional medicine lens. Her research revealed startling gaps in conventional postpartum care, including that "breastfeeding women need almost double the amount of protein as their baseline" and that all pregnant women develop gut permeability that requires specific healing.
Dr. Davis's ability to bridge medical knowledge with embodied wisdom makes this conversation particularly valuable. Her explanation of orgasmic birth demystifies this concept by connecting it to our neurophysiology and hormone production, while her practical approach to postpartum detoxification addresses modern environmental challenges facing new mothers. Through her programs and books, she's created accessible pathways for women to reclaim their postpartum health beyond the standard six-week checkup.
Ready to transform your understanding of birth and postpartum recovery? Visit Dr. Davis's website to access her free masterclass and discover how functional medicine approaches can support your maternal journey.
Would you like to be a guest on our show? Send us a message here!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to the Maternal Wealth Podcast, a space
for all things related tomaternal health, pregnancy and
beyond.
I'm your host, stephanie Terrio.
I'm a labor and delivery nurseand a mother to three beautiful
boys.
Each week, we dive intoinspiring stories and expert
insights to remind us of thepower that you hold in
childbirth and motherhood.
We're here to explore the joys,the challenges and the
(00:34):
complexities of maternal health.
Every mother's journey isunique and every story deserves
to be told.
Please note that this podcastis for entertainment purposes
only.
It is not intended to replaceprofessional medical advice,
diagnosis or treatment.
Always consult with yourhealthcare provider for medical
guidance that is tailored toyour specific needs.
(00:55):
Are you ready?
Let's get into Today.
We welcome Dr Lauren Davis.
She's a mother of two sons, anosteopathic and family medicine
(01:16):
physician, an author of twobooks Thrive Mama, the Ultimate
Postpartum Blueprint, and herother book called Nourishing
Beginnings, an IntegrativePhysician's Reference Guide for
Successful Lactation.
Dr Davis has a longstandinginterest in human anatomy and
osteopathic principles, whichultimately led her to become
(01:44):
duly board certified in familymedicine and osteopathic
neuromuscular medicine.
In family medicine andosteopathic neuromuscular
medicine, she founded Latched,nourished and Thriving as a
resource for mothers pursuingholistic wellness.
As a physician specializing inbreastfeeding, she is dedicated
to nurturing the maternaljourney by enhancing the
breastfeeding experience throughthe perspective of functional
(02:04):
medicine.
In today's episode, dr Daviswill share her personal birth
stories.
Her first birth occurred in ahospital, while her second was
an orgasmic home birth, assistedby her husband, who is also a
physician.
Today I'm excited to chat withDr Lauren Davis and even more
thrilled for you all to hear herbirth story.
(02:27):
Dr Lauren Davis, welcome to theshow.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Thank you so much for having me, Stephanie.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
I'm so glad that you're here.
I would love for you to startoff in sharing with us about
your pursuit into medicine.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Sure.
So my story into medicine beganwhen I was pretty young.
My mom got very ill when I wasa teenager and ended up spending
over a year and a half in thehospital and seeing what she
went through and all of thedifficulties that she had, I
knew I wanted to be in medicineand the question for me was what
(03:03):
I wanted to do.
I knew I wanted to be inmedicine and the question for me
was what I wanted to do.
So initially I started offgoing into medical training,
wanting to be a surgeon.
I decided that the surgeonlifestyle was absolutely not for
me and during medical school Ifell in love with osteopathic
medicine.
So I loved the hands-on care.
I had received it in collegewhen I had a rotator cuff injury
(03:27):
and it actually got me back toplay without surgery, and that's
when I decided that's what Iwanted to be able to do.
Fast forward to my residencywhen I was in family medicine
and neuromuscular medicinetraining and I became a mom for
the first time.
We had our first son when I wasa third-year resident.
So for people not familiar withmedical residency, you go
(03:47):
through college for four years,you go through medical school
for four years and then you dospecialty training and for me
that was an additional fouryears.
So I'm in year three out offour here and I was becoming the
next chief resident.
And for me I had looked atpregnancy and postpartum care as
(04:09):
it should be easy, since I wasa doctor, that I kind of knew
because I was already guidingpeople.
This was going to be a breeze.
We just had to figure out whatto do with our son and boy was I
surprised.
So when I got to breastfeeding,especially in postpartum, I
couldn't believe how tired I was.
I couldn't believe how muchwork it was, how instinctually
(04:33):
different it is to breastfeed,and all of that experience led
me to pivot my whole careertowards breastfeeding medicine.
So I found a group called DrMilk on Facebook.
It's a group now of over 50,000physician women who are
interested in lactationknowledge and passing on
breastfeeding to the rest of thephysician community to be able
(04:57):
to get better breastfeeding care.
I have been a moderator of thatgroup since 2019.
I've studied to be an IBCLC andI've now specialized for
functional medicine in thepostpartum period.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I would love to hear about you being pregnant during
your residency.
As a labor and delivery nurse,I work with many residents on
the OB floor.
I would love for you to sharewith us that experience of being
pregnant and working as aresident.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Sure.
So for me that was easier thanbeing a new mom.
When I was pregnant it wasstill pretty intense, you know.
Showing up to floor call,showing up to delivery, showing
up to code type situations witha big pregnant belly trying to
CPR and to run codes and to bethinking on the fly was a little
(05:53):
bit hard with that earlypregnancy mommy brain.
But I had such a supportivecrew around me that it actually
made it easier.
So showing up, having peopletake over what I was doing,
having nurses come in and say Igot this, you just stand back,
you run the code, you do thethings that you're able to do my
team was so fantastic that thatpart was easy.
(06:16):
It was actually showing up now,postpartum, as a new mom, where
I'm expected to be back to allmy regular duties and my brain
was not functioning like it usedto at that point.
That was the hardest part forme.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
After the birth of your son.
How supportive was the hospitalin helping you initiate
breastfeeding?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Well, it was easier for me because I was giving
birth in my own hospital.
Easier for me because I wasgiving birth in my own hospital.
So part of what I experiencedwas that that team that really
wanted to support me throughpregnancy now felt like they
could show up in the deliveryroom to cheer me on.
But having people walk in andout every two to three minutes
(06:59):
just to drop by and say, hi, howare you doing, how are you
progressing?
Really disrupted for me theexperience of my birth.
I loved the support.
I didn't love being taken awayfrom the attention being on my
son.
It kind of felt like aperformance for me.
Luckily, my husband was alsotraining in the same program at
(07:20):
the time.
We both had the ability todeliver in the hospital, so he
was actually delivering our son.
We had an OB on backup that wasthere in the room in case he
needed anything, but they lethim step in and they let him
take over so I could come backand focus on him and focus on
our family a bit more.
But having everyone want to seethe baby right after he's born,
(07:43):
having everyone be in the roomwe had med students, we had
everyone was a little bit moredaunting for me, not to say that
I would ever take thatexperience away, but it kind of
shined a light for me on what Ineeded in my future pregnancies
Did you go in for an inductionor did you have spontaneous
(08:06):
labor?
(08:26):
covered the cost of living ofwhere we were.
We were in one of the highestcost of living areas in the
country and I could only take my20 days.
My OB was supportive for me inthat I'm saying that I kind of
have to start to get my 20 daysin on this day.
So I had an induction at 40 and3.
I had 20 days of maternityleave and then I was back to
(08:47):
patient care.
I feel that 20 days, that'sthat's hard.
That's hard.
Things have changed Two yearsafter.
Part of what we were involved inas residents at the time was
trying to make it so that newparents could take a little bit
more time, and we were able toget the ACG and META recognized
that at least 12 weeks arecovered now, meaning that you
(09:11):
don't lose your benefits if youneed that time off.
For me, if I took my FMLA, welost benefits, we lost pay,
which wasn't feasible for ourfamily at the time.
How long was your induction?
It was a total of 12 hours fromstart of induction to delivery.
So for me it was pretty quick.
Yeah, that is pretty quick.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
How about for the pushing phase?
How long did you push for?
About three hours.
How was your postpartum stay?
How many days were you in thehospital?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
So they were trying to do me a favor and let me
leave at 24 hours.
But I had a third degree tearwith my first.
The 45 minute drive home fromthe hospital to my house was the
most torturous experience ofany of that.
I asked to stay for anadditional 24.
(09:58):
I ended up at 12.
So I ended up going home at 36hours and to be given a Tylenol
before I left was a little hardto make that journey home.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
I'm sitting here closing my eyes because I can.
I feel for you.
That must have been verydifficult and that must have
hurt.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
It felt like I was sitting on a football.
I was so swollen it felt like Iwas sitting on a football.
That's what I kept telling myhusband and both of us were so
kind of out of it at that pointin those first 48 hours where
you're really not having sleepor you're going through all
those hormonal changes.
Even as a doctor I didn't thinkto get a donut pillow before I
(10:37):
left.
So I'm sitting on the thing andhe's trying to drive home so
gingerly and I'm just.
We're hitting bounce afterbounce and speed bumps and I'm
just I still can't think back tothat without having my pelvic
floor tighten up.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
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For those who are listening,who might not know exactly what
a third-degree tear is, do youmind explaining it for them?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Sure.
So when we grade tears afterdelivery we're looking at the
layers of the skin and deepertissues.
So closest to the surface iswhat's called the mucosa.
And if just the mucosa tears,that's a first degree.
That usually doesn't need anysort of stitching for repair.
If we get past the fascia,which is the next layer down,
that's a second degree tear.
And if we can see muscle, thenthat's a third degree.
(12:25):
If it tears all the way throughto the rectum, then that would
be a fourth degree tear, becauseit tore the mucosa on the other
side.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Earlier, you mentioned that your husband was
able to help with the deliveryof your son.
Was that something that you hadtalked about previously, or was
it kind of like on the fly theobesity come on in, grab a pair
of gloves.
How did that go?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
We had asked at like our 38-week checkup.
I had the same OB throughout myfirst, which I absolutely loved
.
He was my favorite person towork with on the unit.
I felt like he was just so calmand cool and collected in every
room and every delivery that hehad done and I was really
hoping that he would be on theday that I delivered because he
(13:10):
just put me at ease.
So at the 38-week checkup wewere like, hey, do you think
Craig would be able to help youout?
He's like honey.
He's a big Italian guy, longIsland accent.
He's like honey, if you want,he can do the whole thing and
I'll just stand there and watch.
And it was amazing that he onefelt that comfortable with both
(13:33):
of our skills to be able to giveus that gift and two was cool
enough to say, hey, I'll justtake a backseat, I'll be on
backup After baby's born.
If I need to do the repair, ifI need to do anything else, I'll
step in.
You know, craig can go with thebaby, we'll have this all taken
care of.
And it just relaxed us both somuch to make it such a pleasant
(13:56):
experience to know that we hadbackup, even though we were
trainees at the time that we hadexperience because we had both
done probably 200 to 300deliveries a piece at that point
, so to have that experience wasjust amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
How did the initial conversation go with your
husband?
Did he initiate wanting todeliver or were you kind of
putting the nudge in saying, hey, this would be amazing if you
could deliver our son?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
You know it's hard to say.
With that one, which one of usinitiated, I think it was both
something that we both wanted somuch in our heart that it was
just like I wonder if we canfind a way to make this happen.
Like wouldn't it be amazing ifyou were the first person to
hold our kid and we could bothstill feel comfortable?
(14:43):
Because at that point I hadn'thad much out of hospital birth
experience.
For me, my birth lens waseverything happens in hospital.
Everything has to have a backup, because I've seen where moms
need to be rushed into emergencysurgery.
I've seen where we're doing allof these interventions, versus
(15:04):
after my residency when I reallygot more into the home birthing
community and understood that alot of the things that we
sometimes consider emergenciesin the hospital are of our own
making.
Right, and then see D cellswhen we do interventions like
(15:27):
membrane sweeps that mom may nothave been ready for and we put
her body into a different space,right where her nervous system
is no longer regulated, whereshe's feeling fear and
frightened, and the speed withwhich we move through those
transitions, I didn't understandat that time.
And to look back and say, wouldI have had my first as a home
birth.
(15:47):
I didn't have the knowledge atthat point.
I viewed birth as the lensthrough.
It happens in the hospital andthat's the safest way.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Before we get into learning more about your
decision to have a home birthfor your second, I'm curious
what type of medicine does yourhusband practice?
What residency was he in whenyou were pregnant with your
first?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
He was also in family medicine and osteopathic
neuromuscular medicine.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
So the same as you.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
How long after you had your first were you thinking
about having your second child?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
For a long time.
So our first was born in May of2018.
We were going to have oursecond at the beginning of 2020,
and then the pandemic hit andat that point, my husband and I
were supposed to open a wellnesscenter for a large hospital.
All of the money had beenreallocated and our contracts
(16:44):
stipulated that they could moveus into a different position, so
I was, instead of beingwellness and doing osteopathic
manipulation through thepandemic, I was an urgent care
physician and, without usknowing everything that we do
about COVID, I wasn'tcomfortable going to work every
day pregnant and seeing everysingle COVID patient,
(17:08):
essentially in the county.
So we delayed our second and wehave a five-year gap between
our first and our second becausewe waited until we were both
comfortable to start tryingagain.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
When you became pregnant with your second.
Going back to what you werespeaking of earlier in
understanding the process inwhich hospitals treat and induce
mothers and laboring patients,where and when did that shift
happen for you that maybe thistime you are going to have a
(17:43):
child at home?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
So for me, when we decided to open our own private
practice, I was doingbreastfeeding medicine, I was
doing osteopathic manipulationand I was doing integrative and
functional medicine, and I had alot of new moms come to me
after birth to help with theirinfants, for OMM and to help
with breastfeeding issues, andwhat I saw was a large portion
(18:12):
of the home birth communityactually found me because they
were looking for alternativeways to support themselves and
their babies after delivery,trying to avoid tongue tie
revisions or trying to get theirbaby to not be as colicky at
home with hands-on care.
And I was exposed to a wholedifferent population than I had
really ever experienced before.
(18:32):
I had done a lot of OMT onnewborns Most of that was in
hospital and hospital follow-upsand to get a lot of women in
who are telling me these amazinghome birth stories and who are
giving me all these insightfulthings about.
Oh, this is why I didn't wantto have birth in the hospital.
(18:54):
I wanted.
You know my midwife was reallyhands-off.
My body did all the work myself.
I felt comfortable.
I felt so at ease at home.
For me, I think the at easefelt like home because my first
birth was with everyone I knew.
I knew every person walking inthe room.
I knew my husband was capableof delivering the baby.
(19:17):
I knew that the person who hadtaught me to deliver was
standing in the room in caseanything happened.
Not everyone gets to have thatexperience of an in-hospital
birth.
When you have other peoplewalking in the room who you
don't know, when you have newnurses who you don't trust, or
you've had shift change and theperson that's been with you for
(19:39):
12 hours while you're crowningis like, hey, I've got to leave.
You know, I've got to do my ownstuff.
I have life outside of work andyou're getting a brand new
person there to support you,that can be hard for a lot of
women to feel comfortable inthat situation and to hear all
of the home birth stories ofnope.
My midwife was with me throughthe whole thing.
(20:00):
I had the same provider givingme care the whole time.
When I became pregnant with mysecond, the OB group that I was
going to was much different thanI had had with my first
experience.
It was a large, large group.
I was seeing a differentprovider every time.
Half of them didn't even knowthat I was a physician when they
(20:21):
came into the room to talk tome.
Half of them didn't ask my namewhen they walked in the door,
to then find out that I'm aphysician and then ask me
questions like why are you evenhere?
Then it was very, verydifficult.
So we decided that that was notthe experience we wanted.
(20:42):
Bringing our child into theworld.
My husband just said you knowI'm comfortable delivering.
Are you comfortable having himat home?
I said yeah, you know what?
I think I am, because we wereso turned off by that system of
care, by not knowing the personwho was going to be in the
delivery room.
You know, when you go to asystem that has a laborist, a
(21:04):
specialist who only doesin-hospital deliveries, the
person that is taking care ofyou you have never met outside
of that moment, and to put yourtrust into that is a big jump
for a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
So much of what you are speaking of right now
resonates with me.
I think about my patients indifficult situations in the
hospital, feel it heavily,thinking about my patients who
are in situations where they'renot comfortable with a new
physician, new nurses.
The trust isn't there.
Language barriers that is acommon theme that exists in the
(21:44):
hospital setting when it comesto birth.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
And unfortunately for the people who are in it, that
is their everyday, normal right.
It's been normalized for thepeople inside the system.
You know I work with thisdoctor every day but as a
patient coming in who's seen theoutpatient providers the whole
time, you don't know this personat all, you don't know their
(22:07):
capabilities, you don't knowanything about how they want to
support you.
You're coming in with a birthplan that may or may not be
accepted as okay by thatprovider, especially if you want
something different, right.
I think where the divide iscoming in is that patients are
coming in with these requests,right, and sometimes it's just
(22:32):
not feasible in the system we'reworking in.
Sometimes we can meet theirneeds with a little bit of
change and a little bit of workon our part, but there's so much
to be done on a labor anddelivery unit there's so many
places that everyone is drawnand most places are understaffed
(22:52):
that that extra burden on us asa provider is sometimes seen as
the straw that'll break thecamel's back right, is sometimes
seen as the straw that'll breakthe camel's back right as
opposed to.
This is what's going to make mypatient comfortable.
This is what's going to makethem trust me, this is what's
going to make them like theirbirth experience.
(23:13):
I think if we can reframe itfor ourselves as providers, it
makes a huge difference.
We know, for a woman's body andher physiology all mammals have
a reflex.
When we are fearful, when wedon't feel comfortable, what
happens is that the cervixbegins to close.
It's documented in rabbits,it's documented in other mammals
(23:36):
that they're actually able tohave a baby in the birth canal,
be scared by a predator, pullthose babies back up into the
uterus, move their body to asafe space and then finish their
delivery.
Well, can we imagine, if we'regiving fear signals all along
the path, that when we seefailure to progress, when we see
(24:00):
women who are having highanxiety, that that same process
may be taking place in theirbody without us as a provider or
without them recognizing it?
And for me, that's what I didn'twant.
I didn't want interventions, Ididn't want to have a lot of
stuff done and I knew that if Iwere at a hospital, I might be
(24:23):
talked into it, because I didn'twant to be the patient who was
a problem for the unit.
First, be there having aDoppler so we can check.
You know, being able to movethrough birth with a completely
(24:50):
different experience and sittingin a really safe space so that
birth trauma doesn't develop, sothat I felt seen, that I felt
heard and supported by myhusband, by one of my best
friends who made the trip herefrom Greece to be with me.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Comparing the two I can.
Who recognizes and honors thebirth process, learners, the
birth process.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I love that you had the courage to follow your
instincts, to follow your heart,and that you had the support of
your husband in which youcreated a safe space for you to
labor and birth your secondchild, and I know my story is
different than a lot of peoplewho are going to talk about it,
(26:03):
even from a home birthstandpoint.
Right?
Not everyone is privilegedenough that their partner is a
physician who's delivered manybabies and will feel comfortable
doing that for them, right?
When we look at the free birthcommunity, when we look at other
home birthing communities, manytimes it's a cost privilege,
(26:23):
right?
There aren't many home birthmidwives that work with
insurances.
There aren't people who aresupporting home births as
physicians and attending at homebecause of the cost of
malpractice insurance.
So all of you know what I wouldhave my practice look like in
the ideal world versus what Ican actually do is a little bit
(26:45):
different.
But I think that women deservethis support and this care and
this information.
If we're not giving them theother side of the story of
what's possible, because of ourown blinders and our own ability
(27:05):
to block out the other optionof what is possible, are we
truly giving informed consent?
Speaker 1 (27:32):
I would love to hear about your birth at home.
How did labor come on?
What?
Speaker 2 (27:36):
did that look like for you.
So one of my really greatfriends was coming in to help
support us after birth.
She travels all over the world,she is a sexual educator and
she showed up about a week and ahalf before my due date.
So she and her partner land,they get all settled into our
(27:57):
guest room.
They're there throughout theday, which for them, coming from
Greece, was really middle ofthe night, and they're settling
into bed around 7 or 8 pm.
My husband and I finally laydown.
I fall asleep.
I wake up at 1130 and my waterhad broke.
So my husband goes in.
I'm not really havingcontractions, I'm just kind of
(28:19):
hanging out.
He's like hey, sayada, I justwanted you to know.
Lauren's water broke.
We're going to be up probablymost of the night, but she's not
having contractions.
Things probably won't progressfor a little while.
So they go back to sleep andaround 1 am I started having
pretty frequent contractions.
So Craig gets them back up,says sorry if you want to be
(28:43):
here for the birth, lauren'sreally having contractions.
She's in the tub.
She would really love for youto come in.
So Saida comes in.
She sits behind me in the tub,is rubbing my shoulders, is
being the most supportive,caring person ever.
Finally, I'm crowning about2.45 in the morning so I move
over to our bed.
I delivered our son within thenext 15 minutes.
(29:05):
I didn't even push, he pushedhimself out.
And to have that space to feelsupported, to have someone there
who's giving me a nice lighttouch, massage, is connecting
with me and is just watchingthis whole process unfold, was
just absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
People will say how is it possible that someone can
have an orgasmic birth fromsomebody who did experience that
?
How is it possible?
Speaker 2 (29:45):
So when we look at orgasm, orgasm for women can be
triggered by our physiology.
But if we look at some of mypatients that have had spinal
cord injuries, they get arousalareas that are on their skin
above the level where you canstroke the skin, say of their
back, of their shoulder, andthey will have an orgasm.
(30:07):
Some of them learn to just havethought-triggered orgasms.
It is simply a response of ourmind to our physiologic input.
So if we can reach a state inmeditation where we enter that
space and allow orgasm to arise,we can have that without any
(30:31):
physical touch stimuli.
We can enhance it with physicaltouch.
Right when I talk to other womenabout the vulva, if penetration
were supposed to be the mostorgasmic part of intercourse,
why are all the nerve endings onthe outside at the clitoris?
(30:52):
To me that seems like an innatedesign where we're supposed to
be able to use that pleasure forsomething else.
And if birth is one of thethings that is natural, is
supposed to have all of theoxytocin release, if it's
supposed to have extra pitocinrelease, that is such an amazing
(31:14):
way to access those hormones.
So when we look at meditationsand we look at reaching things
like flow state, the thing thatsticks out to me the most is
that we get brainwave patternshifts and we also get hormone
release.
That includes pitocin andoxytocin.
(31:36):
So it's a beautiful way toapproach birth through that
meditative space right.
And some people will reach thatthrough things like hypnosis,
and it's why hypnobirthing is sobig, because we can reach that
state without having to have alot of the physical inputs the
(32:05):
immediate postpartum period.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Talk to us about you delivered your son.
He's in your arms.
How was that for you comparedto being in the hospital?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
It was very different .
So we had basically put spaceheaters in the room, turned the
temperature of the room up.
My husband puts him on my chest, he's delivering the placenta,
syed is there with us, she'sgiving us both love and support,
and my son was immediatelynursing.
So with my first I felt like Itried to get that to happen.
(32:34):
But, being a new mom and justtaking the breastfeeding classes
, I didn't know what a goodlatch looked like and even
though there was stimulation ofthe nipple, he wasn't able to
get the whole thing in his mouth.
I didn't know how to get a deeplatch on.
So immediately with my second,got him on.
(32:56):
Deep felt lovely, you knowcontractions of the uterus, so
that it was pushing the placentaout and just felt so connected
to the moment as opposed tofeeling like there are people
all around me rushing to doeverything else.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
I'm curious about any tearing because you had a third
degree with your first.
How was that for your second?
Speaker 2 (33:22):
I had a first degree right over the space where my
third degree with your first.
How was that for your second?
I had a first degree right overthe space where my third degree
was, but it didn't need anyrepair.
My placenta was a little slowto come out, but my husband was
able to get it.
It took probably 30, 45 minutes.
I'm curious what did you do withyour placenta?
We did not save it.
I lean toward estrogen dominant.
(33:45):
So when we look at functionalmedicine and hormone balance, I
lean towards estrogen dominantand I knew that estrogen
dominance as a breastfeedingprovider can cause low milk
supply.
So we didn't do any estrogen orany encapsulation because I
didn't want the extra estrogens,because I had experienced a low
(34:07):
milk supply the first time.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
So my husband did a placenta print on a page for us
and we just got rid of theplacenta your oldest son to his
little brother at home.
I know you delivered in thenight or in the early morning
hours, but how was that being athome and then introducing your
older son to his new littlesibling?
Speaker 2 (34:30):
So my older son was there, Syeda's partner was with
him.
They were hanging out.
We had a couch kind of in alittle sitting room off of our
bedroom so he was sitting on thecouch with Aaron and they were
playing Teenage Mutant NinjaTurtles.
He was so excited that he gotto play video games in the
(34:51):
middle of the night.
And he came over and he met hisbaby brother right after he was
born.
He said I didn't know he'd beso messy and then walked away
and then loved on him once hewas cleaned up in the morning.
Just so cute.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
And I love just the imagery in my head new
generation of little boysgrowing up to be men.
He's going to remember that andhis foundation of seeing his
mother give birth in the powerthat holds, the power that we
have in creating our family andbeing a family and that core
value.
That's amazing.
(35:27):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
He, our oldest, is diagnosed with ADHD and
sometimes he can be extra energy.
He can be kind of over the topwith the energy bouncing all
around and everything.
In that moment he was so calm.
He walked up.
He looked at his baby brother.
He went oh, he's so cute, buthe's so messy.
(35:50):
Can I give him a kiss later,when he's cleaned up?
I'm like yeah, buddy, it's fine.
I have a photo where Aaron took.
I'm holding the baby.
He's standing next to the bedbehind me.
He's got his hands on hischeeks in this big like oh my
gosh face and his excitement.
You can just see it radiatingoff of his face.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
I love it, that's.
It's just beautiful Women likeyourself who are taking
ownership of what you want andtaking ownership of how you want
to live your life and bringlife into the world.
It's making waves and sharingyour story so other women could
hear it.
It's so important that you'redoing this, so I'm so glad
(36:30):
you're here and sharing thisstory.
I'm so happy to be here you're aphysician and from my
(36:51):
experience of working withphysicians obstetricians home
birth is a difficult topic totalk about and I'm curious in
your community, with yourcolleagues who are also
physicians, how was it receivedthat you were making a decision
(37:12):
to have a home birth and thenafterwards, after the home birth
happened, how was that received?
Speaker 2 (37:20):
For my closer friends .
They tend to be osteopaths,they tend to be functional
medicine providers, they tend tobe out-of-the-box thinkers and
for them they were just soexcited that I got what I wanted
For the wider community atlarge.
Sometimes it's still notreceived well.
Sometimes it's still notreceived well, but we all have
(37:43):
our own experience, we all haveour own bias.
And to be an OB provider, to bethe one that is the end-all
be-all who doesn't get to seethe easy home births who doesn't
get to see, you know, the womenwho decide to never experience
in-hospital care, the women whogo to birthing centers.
(38:04):
They don't get that experienceunless they pursue it and have
it on their own.
So I can't fault them for beingafraid for me.
But what I remember is that Idon't have to take on someone
else's fear and make it my ownon someone else's fear and make
(38:25):
it my own.
If I'm not afraid, if I'mreassured by the fact that my
home is 15 minutes from theclosest hospital, that hospital
has a NICU.
If anything were to happen, Iknow how to support.
My husband knows how to support.
We had people here.
We had the tools at home withus to bridge that 15-minute gap,
should anything happen.
(38:46):
That is within my comfort zoneand I can't ask someone else to
accept my risk tolerance.
What I can ask for them is thatthey respect my choice.
Right, I can't ask them toagree with it, but I can say
(39:06):
this was my choice, this was howI wanted my experience to go.
Can you find that happiness forme that everything worked out
well and most of them can dothat?
Speaker 1 (39:17):
I love for our listeners to learn more about
Latched, nourished and Thriving.
How did you come up with thisidea and how is it supporting
moms who are pursuing more of aholistic wellness for themselves
and their families?
Speaker 2 (39:30):
Yeah.
So after my first, myexperience was that I had a
harder time recovering than Icould have ever thought possible
.
So in my background, my history, I have a history of celiac
disease, autoimmune condition,and what I experienced was
flares of things that felt likemy celiac, even though I knew I
(39:52):
was still gluten-free.
What I experienced was a lot ofgut issues and brain fog,
fatigue.
All of these things that I knewhad to have an underlying cause
.
So I spent kind of four or fiveyears diving into the research,
looking at what women need fornutrition, what's happening in
(40:15):
the body during pregnancy thatchanges our physiology, changes
our metabolism, changes our geneexpression, and what I
discovered were a few things.
So the first is thatbreastfeeding women need almost
double the amount of protein astheir baseline.
So if we put women back on thesame diet and food plan that
(40:36):
they had, or worse, if werestrict, trying to bounce back,
we end up at a proteindeficiency.
And what do we know aboutprotein deficiency?
It leads to thin skin, hairloss, fatigue, brittle nails,
brain fog, muscle wasting, boneloss all the things that we
attribute to normal postpartumexperience.
(40:58):
The second was that all womenactually end up having leakiness
of their gut during pregnancy.
It's how our breast microbiomedevelops.
So during the third trimesterwe get opening of those cell
walls, we get bacteria that arepassed through our lymphatic
channels to get to the breastfrom our gut and that's how we
(41:20):
make our breast microbiome.
Well, if we don't repair, if wehave these traumatic
experiences, if we have highcortisol, which is a normal part
of pregnancy, all of it leadsto prolonged leaky gut.
So why are we seeing autoimmuneconditions?
Why are we seeing more womenfeel fatigued after birth?
(41:40):
Well, it's because we're notaddressing the gut and we're not
healing it in a way that mostcultures instinctively do.
So bone broth and well-cookedfoods and lots of micronutrients
are a big part of traditionalcultures, yet it's not something
we really practice here in theUS.
(42:03):
So how do we nourish the body ina way that repairs the gut, in
a way that actually meets allthe body's needs?
How do we look at things thatinterfere in this process, like
endocrine disrupting chemicalsand microplastics that are now
everywhere in our environment?
And how do we prioritizekeeping our health during a time
(42:25):
where our focus is on someoneelse?
And what I came up with werekind of three main things.
One, nutrition we nourish mamaright.
The second is we rebalancehormones and we detox in a way
that's safe for us and baby andthat's called our Detox Mama
program.
And third, we do it in acommunity of women who are
(42:47):
focusing on this together.
So I've built a community forwomen to come in to get all of
this information, to getadvanced functional medicine
testing, to get to the rootcause of why they're having
these issues in the first place.
And especially when we'retalking about women having
babies back to back to back.
(43:08):
Now that level of depletion justbuilds from pregnancy to
postpartum, to pregnancy topostpartum periods.
So how do we stop that cycle?
How do we intervene?
So how do we stop that cycle?
How do we intervene?
So that is what I do at LatchNurse Thriving.
I educate women, we havecourses, we have community, we
have group coaching programs andwe have the book.
(43:29):
So anything is accessible toanyone who needs the information
.
I've also recently started aprovider training program on how
to train postpartum providers,doulas, midwives, nurses on
these principles and how theycan implement them with their
patients, and that's called ourThrive Mama Method program.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
My perspective as a labor and delivery nurse.
I do see a lot of thinkingabout my patients and I'm seeing
a lot of women who are havingthe hormonal and endocrine
complications presenting intheir thyroid.
Is that also something you areseeing with?
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Yes.
So we know, we know thepostpartum period 90% of women
are going to have intrusivethoughts.
It's from the brain rewiring,it's from that neuroplasticity
and the new connections that arehappening.
We know that 60% of women aregoing to be deficient in
(44:32):
micronutrients, so we're lookingat iron, zinc, potassium,
magnesium.
We know that 20% are going togo on to develop a postpartum
thyroid issue and we know thatup to 70% are going to
experience some sort of hormonalimbalance.
And it's all because of, one,how we're treating women and,
(44:56):
two, the ecosystem that ourbodies are in right.
When we have microplastics inthe water, when we know that
100% of cord blood samples nowhave some sort of endocrine
disrupting chemical within them,those are inside our bodies to
get there in the first place.
We talk about women not detoxingtheir bodies during pregnancy
(45:21):
or breastfeeding.
But again, if we have thesecycles where we're back to back
to back, how long do we wait toprioritize our own health?
So I found a way for women tobe able to detox safely while
still breastfeeding.
A lot of it depends on our gutright.
Our gut is what we call phasethree of our detox process and
(45:45):
if we're not revamping andsealing and healing the gut,
we're not going to be able toeffectively remove things from
our body.
Well, what do we know abouttoxins inside a woman's body?
Is that they're fat soluble,and what is one of the biggest
things that we're mobilizing fatfor postpartum?
It's our breast milk.
(46:05):
We're going to concentratethose things in breast milk if
we don't figure out a way toremove them from our body.
So is that a reason why we'reseeing more protein intolerances
than ever?
Is it a reason why we're seeingmore eczema in infants than
ever?
I think so.
We don't have the research toback it up yet, but I know when
(46:27):
I work with people and we get amom's gut working well, most of
the time the things that they'rehaving and seeing in their
babies go away.
So when we prioritize our ownhealth as moms and their babies
go away, so when we prioritizeour own health as moms, we then
have the ability to pass on thathealth to our infants.
(46:47):
And we know from all of thestudies that a number one
predictor of a baby's futurehealth is their mother's
happiness.
I know for me, when I'm notfeeling well, I get cranky, I'm
not happy, I'm not the mom Iwant to show up to be as when
I'm inflamed right when my gutis off, when I've had gluten on
(47:07):
accident at a restaurant out fortwo or three days.
I don't feel like me.
That was most of my experiencemy first six months postpartum,
with my first, and until Ifigured this out and I figured
out how to heal my own gut and Ifigured out how to reseal the
gut barrier and I figured outhow to detox myself, I was not
showing up as the version of methat I wanted to be for my kids.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
For women who are postpartum but are six months a
year or more two years out andthey're interested in detoxing
the Detox Mama program, would itstill benefit them, even though
they're outside of thebreastfeeding phase?
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Absolutely.
The Detox Mama program teachesthe principles of detox in a way
that make it safe forbreastfeeding moms.
They're applicable at any pointin our life, but what I've done
with that program that's uniqueand different is that I've
pointed out all of the ways thatbreastfeeding moms can still do
things, and what herbals aresafe for them, what binders are
(48:12):
safe for them to use, what notto use and avoid in the products
that they're picking out, howto do it naturally through food
and through gut healing toprevent absorption of toxins.
And then how to look at ourenvironment to get the things
out of our environment that arethe biggest factors.
So I personally considerpostpartum up to two years.
So we know that you can stillbe developed with postpartum
(48:37):
anxiety and depression, to somewill say four years after birth.
So if we are still beingaffected, if our brain is still
changing and rewiring two yearsafter birth, we're technically
postpartum forever.
But the program is reallydesigned for moms in those first
two years after birth.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
To our listeners who are interested in learning more
about yourself, about your booksand your program.
How can they find you and howcan they learn?
Speaker 2 (49:05):
more.
So on our website we have achat feature.
I have uploaded a masterclasson there that kind of goes
through all of these pieces ofthe puzzle and they can register
for that and watch it for free.
The book is on our website.
It's also another great way toget the information and get my
thought processes as a prettylow ticket item.
(49:30):
So it's $9.99.
You get the PDF version, youget the ebook version and you
get the audio so you can listento it, consume it in any way
that you want.
And when people are ready toreally change, I offer a free
discovery call so that they canmeet me, so that we can talk
about if this will work for themor not and if there are ways
(49:50):
that they can get theinformation right that we can
kind of custom tailor theirpackage based on their needs.
So, whether that be justenrolling in the courses or
joining our membership programor joining our functional
medicine programs, we can talkabout what the best solution is
for them.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
I want to thank you for coming on to the show.
We have a common theme where wesay that birth is healing and
for the listeners, for the womenthat I'm interviewing talking
about birth, the transformationthat we go through.
It has been also healing formyself.
Listening to you and how you'resharing your story and the
(50:33):
experiences that I have beenthrough at bedside in the
hospital and hearing you speakyour truth has healed me in ways
that I can't even begin toexplain.
Thank you, stephanie.
Hey there, amazing listeners.
(50:58):
If you love what we do and wantto see our podcast grow, we
need your help.
By making a donation, you'll besupporting us and bringing you
even more great content.
I truly believe creating thisspace for women all across the
globe to share their story willallow us to collectively heal,
grow and become more empoweredin the space that we deserve to
(51:21):
be Motherhood, womanhood andhowever that looks and feels for
each and every one of us, everycontribution, big or small,
will make a huge difference.
If you can head over to supportus today, there's a link in the
bio to support the podcast.
From the bottom of my heart,thank you for being a part of
this journey to support thepodcast From the bottom of my
(51:42):
heart.
Thank you for being a part ofthis journey.
Thank you for listening.
Be sure to check out our socialmedia.
All links are provided in theepisode description.
We're excited to have you here.
Please give us a follow If youor someone you know would like
to be a guest on the show.
Reach out to us via email atinfo at maternalwealthcom.
And remember stay healthy,embrace your power and you got
(52:11):
this, thank you.
Welcome to the Maternal Wealth Podcast, a space
for all things related tomaternal health, pregnancy and
beyond.
I'm your host, stephanie Terrio.
I'm a labor and delivery nurseand a mother to three beautiful
boys.
Each week, we dive intoinspiring stories and expert
insights to remind us of thepower that you hold in
childbirth and motherhood.
We're here to explore the joys,the challenges and the
(00:34):
complexities of maternal health.
Every mother's journey isunique and every story deserves
to be told.
Please note that this podcastis for entertainment purposes
only.
It is not intended to replaceprofessional medical advice,
diagnosis or treatment.
Always consult with yourhealthcare provider for medical
guidance that is tailored toyour specific needs.
(00:55):
Are you ready?
Let's get into Today.
We welcome Dr Lauren Davis.
She's a mother of two sons, anosteopathic and family medicine
(01:16):
physician, an author of twobooks Thrive Mama, the Ultimate
Postpartum Blueprint, and herother book called Nourishing
Beginnings, an IntegrativePhysician's Reference Guide for
Successful Lactation.
Dr Davis has a longstandinginterest in human anatomy and
osteopathic principles, whichultimately led her to become
(01:44):
duly board certified in familymedicine and osteopathic
neuromuscular medicine.
In family medicine andosteopathic neuromuscular
medicine, she founded Latched,nourished and Thriving as a
resource for mothers pursuingholistic wellness.
As a physician specializing inbreastfeeding, she is dedicated
to nurturing the maternaljourney by enhancing the
breastfeeding experience throughthe perspective of functional
(02:04):
medicine.
In today's episode, dr Daviswill share her personal birth
stories.
Her first birth occurred in ahospital, while her second was
an orgasmic home birth, assistedby her husband, who is also a
physician.
Today I'm excited to chat withDr Lauren Davis and even more
thrilled for you all to hear herbirth story.
(02:27):
Dr Lauren Davis, welcome to theshow.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Thank you so much for having me, Stephanie.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
I'm so glad that you're here.
I would love for you to startoff in sharing with us about
your pursuit into medicine.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Sure.
So my story into medicine beganwhen I was pretty young.
My mom got very ill when I wasa teenager and ended up spending
over a year and a half in thehospital and seeing what she
went through and all of thedifficulties that she had, I
knew I wanted to be in medicineand the question for me was what
(03:03):
I wanted to do.
I knew I wanted to be inmedicine and the question for me
was what I wanted to do.
So initially I started offgoing into medical training,
wanting to be a surgeon.
I decided that the surgeonlifestyle was absolutely not for
me and during medical school Ifell in love with osteopathic
medicine.
So I loved the hands-on care.
I had received it in collegewhen I had a rotator cuff injury
(03:27):
and it actually got me back toplay without surgery, and that's
when I decided that's what Iwanted to be able to do.
Fast forward to my residencywhen I was in family medicine
and neuromuscular medicinetraining and I became a mom for
the first time.
We had our first son when I wasa third-year resident.
So for people not familiar withmedical residency, you go
(03:47):
through college for four years,you go through medical school
for four years and then you dospecialty training and for me
that was an additional fouryears.
So I'm in year three out offour here and I was becoming the
next chief resident.
And for me I had looked atpregnancy and postpartum care as
(04:09):
it should be easy, since I wasa doctor, that I kind of knew
because I was already guidingpeople.
This was going to be a breeze.
We just had to figure out whatto do with our son and boy was I
surprised.
So when I got to breastfeeding,especially in postpartum, I
couldn't believe how tired I was.
I couldn't believe how muchwork it was, how instinctually
(04:33):
different it is to breastfeed,and all of that experience led
me to pivot my whole careertowards breastfeeding medicine.
So I found a group called DrMilk on Facebook.
It's a group now of over 50,000physician women who are
interested in lactationknowledge and passing on
breastfeeding to the rest of thephysician community to be able
(04:57):
to get better breastfeeding care.
I have been a moderator of thatgroup since 2019.
I've studied to be an IBCLC andI've now specialized for
functional medicine in thepostpartum period.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I would love to hear about you being pregnant during
your residency.
As a labor and delivery nurse,I work with many residents on
the OB floor.
I would love for you to sharewith us that experience of being
pregnant and working as aresident.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Sure.
So for me that was easier thanbeing a new mom.
When I was pregnant it wasstill pretty intense, you know.
Showing up to floor call,showing up to delivery, showing
up to code type situations witha big pregnant belly trying to
CPR and to run codes and to bethinking on the fly was a little
(05:53):
bit hard with that earlypregnancy mommy brain.
But I had such a supportivecrew around me that it actually
made it easier.
So showing up, having peopletake over what I was doing,
having nurses come in and say Igot this, you just stand back,
you run the code, you do thethings that you're able to do my
team was so fantastic that thatpart was easy.
(06:16):
It was actually showing up now,postpartum, as a new mom, where
I'm expected to be back to allmy regular duties and my brain
was not functioning like it usedto at that point.
That was the hardest part forme.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
After the birth of your son.
How supportive was the hospitalin helping you initiate
breastfeeding?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Well, it was easier for me because I was giving
birth in my own hospital.
Easier for me because I wasgiving birth in my own hospital.
So part of what I experiencedwas that that team that really
wanted to support me throughpregnancy now felt like they
could show up in the deliveryroom to cheer me on.
But having people walk in andout every two to three minutes
(06:59):
just to drop by and say, hi, howare you doing, how are you
progressing?
Really disrupted for me theexperience of my birth.
I loved the support.
I didn't love being taken awayfrom the attention being on my
son.
It kind of felt like aperformance for me.
Luckily, my husband was alsotraining in the same program at
(07:20):
the time.
We both had the ability todeliver in the hospital, so he
was actually delivering our son.
We had an OB on backup that wasthere in the room in case he
needed anything, but they lethim step in and they let him
take over so I could come backand focus on him and focus on
our family a bit more.
But having everyone want to seethe baby right after he's born,
(07:43):
having everyone be in the roomwe had med students, we had
everyone was a little bit moredaunting for me, not to say that
I would ever take thatexperience away, but it kind of
shined a light for me on what Ineeded in my future pregnancies
Did you go in for an inductionor did you have spontaneous
(08:06):
labor?
(08:26):
covered the cost of living ofwhere we were.
We were in one of the highestcost of living areas in the
country and I could only take my20 days.
My OB was supportive for me inthat I'm saying that I kind of
have to start to get my 20 daysin on this day.
So I had an induction at 40 and3.
I had 20 days of maternityleave and then I was back to
(08:47):
patient care.
I feel that 20 days, that'sthat's hard.
That's hard.
Things have changed Two yearsafter.
Part of what we were involved inas residents at the time was
trying to make it so that newparents could take a little bit
more time, and we were able toget the ACG and META recognized
that at least 12 weeks arecovered now, meaning that you
(09:11):
don't lose your benefits if youneed that time off.
For me, if I took my FMLA, welost benefits, we lost pay,
which wasn't feasible for ourfamily at the time.
How long was your induction?
It was a total of 12 hours fromstart of induction to delivery.
So for me it was pretty quick.
Yeah, that is pretty quick.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
How about for the pushing phase?
How long did you push for?
About three hours.
How was your postpartum stay?
How many days were you in thehospital?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
So they were trying to do me a favor and let me
leave at 24 hours.
But I had a third degree tearwith my first.
The 45 minute drive home fromthe hospital to my house was the
most torturous experience ofany of that.
I asked to stay for anadditional 24.
(09:58):
I ended up at 12.
So I ended up going home at 36hours and to be given a Tylenol
before I left was a little hardto make that journey home.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
I'm sitting here closing my eyes because I can.
I feel for you.
That must have been verydifficult and that must have
hurt.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
It felt like I was sitting on a football.
I was so swollen it felt like Iwas sitting on a football.
That's what I kept telling myhusband and both of us were so
kind of out of it at that pointin those first 48 hours where
you're really not having sleepor you're going through all
those hormonal changes.
Even as a doctor I didn't thinkto get a donut pillow before I
(10:37):
left.
So I'm sitting on the thing andhe's trying to drive home so
gingerly and I'm just.
We're hitting bounce afterbounce and speed bumps and I'm
just I still can't think back tothat without having my pelvic
floor tighten up.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
We paused this episode for a quick message from
our sponsor At Maternal Wealth.
We aim to ensure that you haveaccess to the best and the most
appropriate care.
That's why we created amaternal health care provider
database.
Maternal health providers caneasily create profiles to
promote their services andbusiness, helping to increase
(11:13):
access for those seeking theircare.
This is a one-of-a-kinddatabase that offers a new and
exciting way for women to searchfor and find maternal health
providers near them and tailoredto their specific needs.
Profiles feature badges thathighlight various services, such
as tollback, friendly practices, all female practices, lgbtqai
(11:36):
plus inclusivity, languageoptions, access to vaginal
breach services and more.
For those who are listening,who might not know exactly what
a third-degree tear is, do youmind explaining it for them?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Sure.
So when we grade tears afterdelivery we're looking at the
layers of the skin and deepertissues.
So closest to the surface iswhat's called the mucosa.
And if just the mucosa tears,that's a first degree.
That usually doesn't need anysort of stitching for repair.
If we get past the fascia,which is the next layer down,
that's a second degree tear.
And if we can see muscle, thenthat's a third degree.
(12:25):
If it tears all the way throughto the rectum, then that would
be a fourth degree tear, becauseit tore the mucosa on the other
side.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Earlier, you mentioned that your husband was
able to help with the deliveryof your son.
Was that something that you hadtalked about previously, or was
it kind of like on the fly theobesity come on in, grab a pair
of gloves.
How did that go?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
We had asked at like our 38-week checkup.
I had the same OB throughout myfirst, which I absolutely loved
.
He was my favorite person towork with on the unit.
I felt like he was just so calmand cool and collected in every
room and every delivery that hehad done and I was really
hoping that he would be on theday that I delivered because he
(13:10):
just put me at ease.
So at the 38-week checkup wewere like, hey, do you think
Craig would be able to help youout?
He's like honey.
He's a big Italian guy, longIsland accent.
He's like honey, if you want,he can do the whole thing and
I'll just stand there and watch.
And it was amazing that he onefelt that comfortable with both
(13:33):
of our skills to be able to giveus that gift and two was cool
enough to say, hey, I'll justtake a backseat, I'll be on
backup After baby's born.
If I need to do the repair, ifI need to do anything else, I'll
step in.
You know, craig can go with thebaby, we'll have this all taken
care of.
And it just relaxed us both somuch to make it such a pleasant
(13:56):
experience to know that we hadbackup, even though we were
trainees at the time that we hadexperience because we had both
done probably 200 to 300deliveries a piece at that point
, so to have that experience wasjust amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
How did the initial conversation go with your
husband?
Did he initiate wanting todeliver or were you kind of
putting the nudge in saying, hey, this would be amazing if you
could deliver our son?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
You know it's hard to say.
With that one, which one of usinitiated, I think it was both
something that we both wanted somuch in our heart that it was
just like I wonder if we canfind a way to make this happen.
Like wouldn't it be amazing ifyou were the first person to
hold our kid and we could bothstill feel comfortable?
(14:43):
Because at that point I hadn'thad much out of hospital birth
experience.
For me, my birth lens waseverything happens in hospital.
Everything has to have a backup, because I've seen where moms
need to be rushed into emergencysurgery.
I've seen where we're doing allof these interventions, versus
(15:04):
after my residency when I reallygot more into the home birthing
community and understood that alot of the things that we
sometimes consider emergenciesin the hospital are of our own
making.
Right, and then see D cellswhen we do interventions like
(15:27):
membrane sweeps that mom may nothave been ready for and we put
her body into a different space,right where her nervous system
is no longer regulated, whereshe's feeling fear and
frightened, and the speed withwhich we move through those
transitions, I didn't understandat that time.
And to look back and say, wouldI have had my first as a home
birth.
(15:47):
I didn't have the knowledge atthat point.
I viewed birth as the lensthrough.
It happens in the hospital andthat's the safest way.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Before we get into learning more about your
decision to have a home birthfor your second, I'm curious
what type of medicine does yourhusband practice?
What residency was he in whenyou were pregnant with your
first?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
He was also in family medicine and osteopathic
neuromuscular medicine.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
So the same as you.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
How long after you had your first were you thinking
about having your second child?
Speaker 2 (16:21):
For a long time.
So our first was born in May of2018.
We were going to have oursecond at the beginning of 2020,
and then the pandemic hit andat that point, my husband and I
were supposed to open a wellnesscenter for a large hospital.
All of the money had beenreallocated and our contracts
(16:44):
stipulated that they could moveus into a different position, so
I was, instead of beingwellness and doing osteopathic
manipulation through thepandemic, I was an urgent care
physician and, without usknowing everything that we do
about COVID, I wasn'tcomfortable going to work every
day pregnant and seeing everysingle COVID patient,
(17:08):
essentially in the county.
So we delayed our second and wehave a five-year gap between
our first and our second becausewe waited until we were both
comfortable to start tryingagain.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
When you became pregnant with your second.
Going back to what you werespeaking of earlier in
understanding the process inwhich hospitals treat and induce
mothers and laboring patients,where and when did that shift
happen for you that maybe thistime you are going to have a
(17:43):
child at home?
Speaker 2 (17:51):
So for me, when we decided to open our own private
practice, I was doingbreastfeeding medicine, I was
doing osteopathic manipulationand I was doing integrative and
functional medicine, and I had alot of new moms come to me
after birth to help with theirinfants, for OMM and to help
with breastfeeding issues, andwhat I saw was a large portion
(18:12):
of the home birth communityactually found me because they
were looking for alternativeways to support themselves and
their babies after delivery,trying to avoid tongue tie
revisions or trying to get theirbaby to not be as colicky at
home with hands-on care.
And I was exposed to a wholedifferent population than I had
really ever experienced before.
(18:32):
I had done a lot of OMT onnewborns Most of that was in
hospital and hospital follow-upsand to get a lot of women in
who are telling me these amazinghome birth stories and who are
giving me all these insightfulthings about.
Oh, this is why I didn't wantto have birth in the hospital.
(18:54):
I wanted.
You know my midwife was reallyhands-off.
My body did all the work myself.
I felt comfortable.
I felt so at ease at home.
For me, I think the at easefelt like home because my first
birth was with everyone I knew.
I knew every person walking inthe room.
I knew my husband was capableof delivering the baby.
(19:17):
I knew that the person who hadtaught me to deliver was
standing in the room in caseanything happened.
Not everyone gets to have thatexperience of an in-hospital
birth.
When you have other peoplewalking in the room who you
don't know, when you have newnurses who you don't trust, or
you've had shift change and theperson that's been with you for
(19:39):
12 hours while you're crowningis like, hey, I've got to leave.
You know, I've got to do my ownstuff.
I have life outside of work andyou're getting a brand new
person there to support you,that can be hard for a lot of
women to feel comfortable inthat situation and to hear all
of the home birth stories ofnope.
My midwife was with me throughthe whole thing.
(20:00):
I had the same provider givingme care the whole time.
When I became pregnant with mysecond, the OB group that I was
going to was much different thanI had had with my first
experience.
It was a large, large group.
I was seeing a differentprovider every time.
Half of them didn't even knowthat I was a physician when they
(20:21):
came into the room to talk tome.
Half of them didn't ask my namewhen they walked in the door,
to then find out that I'm aphysician and then ask me
questions like why are you evenhere?
Then it was very, verydifficult.
So we decided that that was notthe experience we wanted.
(20:42):
Bringing our child into theworld.
My husband just said you knowI'm comfortable delivering.
Are you comfortable having himat home?
I said yeah, you know what?
I think I am, because we wereso turned off by that system of
care, by not knowing the personwho was going to be in the
delivery room.
You know, when you go to asystem that has a laborist, a
(21:04):
specialist who only doesin-hospital deliveries, the
person that is taking care ofyou you have never met outside
of that moment, and to put yourtrust into that is a big jump
for a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
So much of what you are speaking of right now
resonates with me.
I think about my patients indifficult situations in the
hospital, feel it heavily,thinking about my patients who
are in situations where they'renot comfortable with a new
physician, new nurses.
The trust isn't there.
Language barriers that is acommon theme that exists in the
(21:44):
hospital setting when it comesto birth.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
And unfortunately for the people who are in it, that
is their everyday, normal right.
It's been normalized for thepeople inside the system.
You know I work with thisdoctor every day but as a
patient coming in who's seen theoutpatient providers the whole
time, you don't know this personat all, you don't know their
(22:07):
capabilities, you don't knowanything about how they want to
support you.
You're coming in with a birthplan that may or may not be
accepted as okay by thatprovider, especially if you want
something different, right.
I think where the divide iscoming in is that patients are
coming in with these requests,right, and sometimes it's just
(22:32):
not feasible in the system we'reworking in.
Sometimes we can meet theirneeds with a little bit of
change and a little bit of workon our part, but there's so much
to be done on a labor anddelivery unit there's so many
places that everyone is drawnand most places are understaffed
(22:52):
that that extra burden on us asa provider is sometimes seen as
the straw that'll break thecamel's back right, is sometimes
seen as the straw that'll breakthe camel's back right as
opposed to.
This is what's going to make mypatient comfortable.
This is what's going to makethem trust me, this is what's
going to make them like theirbirth experience.
(23:13):
I think if we can reframe itfor ourselves as providers, it
makes a huge difference.
We know, for a woman's body andher physiology all mammals have
a reflex.
When we are fearful, when wedon't feel comfortable, what
happens is that the cervixbegins to close.
It's documented in rabbits,it's documented in other mammals
(23:36):
that they're actually able tohave a baby in the birth canal,
be scared by a predator, pullthose babies back up into the
uterus, move their body to asafe space and then finish their
delivery.
Well, can we imagine, if we'regiving fear signals all along
the path, that when we seefailure to progress, when we see
(24:00):
women who are having highanxiety, that that same process
may be taking place in theirbody without us as a provider or
without them recognizing it?
And for me, that's what I didn'twant.
I didn't want interventions, Ididn't want to have a lot of
stuff done and I knew that if Iwere at a hospital, I might be
(24:23):
talked into it, because I didn'twant to be the patient who was
a problem for the unit.
First, be there having aDoppler so we can check.
You know, being able to movethrough birth with a completely
(24:50):
different experience and sittingin a really safe space so that
birth trauma doesn't develop, sothat I felt seen, that I felt
heard and supported by myhusband, by one of my best
friends who made the trip herefrom Greece to be with me.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Comparing the two I can.
Who recognizes and honors thebirth process, learners, the
birth process.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I love that you had the courage to follow your
instincts, to follow your heart,and that you had the support of
your husband in which youcreated a safe space for you to
labor and birth your secondchild, and I know my story is
different than a lot of peoplewho are going to talk about it,
(26:03):
even from a home birthstandpoint.
Right?
Not everyone is privilegedenough that their partner is a
physician who's delivered manybabies and will feel comfortable
doing that for them, right?
When we look at the free birthcommunity, when we look at other
home birthing communities, manytimes it's a cost privilege,
(26:23):
right?
There aren't many home birthmidwives that work with
insurances.
There aren't people who aresupporting home births as
physicians and attending at homebecause of the cost of
malpractice insurance.
So all of you know what I wouldhave my practice look like in
the ideal world versus what Ican actually do is a little bit
(26:45):
different.
But I think that women deservethis support and this care and
this information.
If we're not giving them theother side of the story of
what's possible, because of ourown blinders and our own ability
(27:05):
to block out the other optionof what is possible, are we
truly giving informed consent?
Speaker 1 (27:32):
I would love to hear about your birth at home.
How did labor come on?
What?
Speaker 2 (27:36):
did that look like for you.
So one of my really greatfriends was coming in to help
support us after birth.
She travels all over the world,she is a sexual educator and
she showed up about a week and ahalf before my due date.
So she and her partner land,they get all settled into our
(27:57):
guest room.
They're there throughout theday, which for them, coming from
Greece, was really middle ofthe night, and they're settling
into bed around 7 or 8 pm.
My husband and I finally laydown.
I fall asleep.
I wake up at 1130 and my waterhad broke.
So my husband goes in.
I'm not really havingcontractions, I'm just kind of
(28:19):
hanging out.
He's like hey, sayada, I justwanted you to know.
Lauren's water broke.
We're going to be up probablymost of the night, but she's not
having contractions.
Things probably won't progressfor a little while.
So they go back to sleep andaround 1 am I started having
pretty frequent contractions.
So Craig gets them back up,says sorry if you want to be
(28:43):
here for the birth, lauren'sreally having contractions.
She's in the tub.
She would really love for youto come in.
So Saida comes in.
She sits behind me in the tub,is rubbing my shoulders, is
being the most supportive,caring person ever.
Finally, I'm crowning about2.45 in the morning so I move
over to our bed.
I delivered our son within thenext 15 minutes.
(29:05):
I didn't even push, he pushedhimself out.
And to have that space to feelsupported, to have someone there
who's giving me a nice lighttouch, massage, is connecting
with me and is just watchingthis whole process unfold, was
just absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
People will say how is it possible that someone can
have an orgasmic birth fromsomebody who did experience that
?
How is it possible?
Speaker 2 (29:45):
So when we look at orgasm, orgasm for women can be
triggered by our physiology.
But if we look at some of mypatients that have had spinal
cord injuries, they get arousalareas that are on their skin
above the level where you canstroke the skin, say of their
back, of their shoulder, andthey will have an orgasm.
(30:07):
Some of them learn to just havethought-triggered orgasms.
It is simply a response of ourmind to our physiologic input.
So if we can reach a state inmeditation where we enter that
space and allow orgasm to arise,we can have that without any
(30:31):
physical touch stimuli.
We can enhance it with physicaltouch.
Right when I talk to other womenabout the vulva, if penetration
were supposed to be the mostorgasmic part of intercourse,
why are all the nerve endings onthe outside at the clitoris?
(30:52):
To me that seems like an innatedesign where we're supposed to
be able to use that pleasure forsomething else.
And if birth is one of thethings that is natural, is
supposed to have all of theoxytocin release, if it's
supposed to have extra pitocinrelease, that is such an amazing
(31:14):
way to access those hormones.
So when we look at meditationsand we look at reaching things
like flow state, the thing thatsticks out to me the most is
that we get brainwave patternshifts and we also get hormone
release.
That includes pitocin andoxytocin.
(31:36):
So it's a beautiful way toapproach birth through that
meditative space right.
And some people will reach thatthrough things like hypnosis,
and it's why hypnobirthing is sobig, because we can reach that
state without having to have alot of the physical inputs the
(32:05):
immediate postpartum period.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Talk to us about you delivered your son.
He's in your arms.
How was that for you comparedto being in the hospital?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
It was very different .
So we had basically put spaceheaters in the room, turned the
temperature of the room up.
My husband puts him on my chest, he's delivering the placenta,
syed is there with us, she'sgiving us both love and support,
and my son was immediatelynursing.
So with my first I felt like Itried to get that to happen.
(32:34):
But, being a new mom and justtaking the breastfeeding classes
, I didn't know what a goodlatch looked like and even
though there was stimulation ofthe nipple, he wasn't able to
get the whole thing in his mouth.
I didn't know how to get a deeplatch on.
So immediately with my second,got him on.
(32:56):
Deep felt lovely, you knowcontractions of the uterus, so
that it was pushing the placentaout and just felt so connected
to the moment as opposed tofeeling like there are people
all around me rushing to doeverything else.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
I'm curious about any tearing because you had a third
degree with your first.
How was that for your second?
Speaker 2 (33:22):
I had a first degree right over the space where my
third degree with your first.
How was that for your second?
I had a first degree right overthe space where my third degree
was, but it didn't need anyrepair.
My placenta was a little slowto come out, but my husband was
able to get it.
It took probably 30, 45 minutes.
I'm curious what did you do withyour placenta?
We did not save it.
I lean toward estrogen dominant.
(33:45):
So when we look at functionalmedicine and hormone balance, I
lean towards estrogen dominantand I knew that estrogen
dominance as a breastfeedingprovider can cause low milk
supply.
So we didn't do any estrogen orany encapsulation because I
didn't want the extra estrogens,because I had experienced a low
(34:07):
milk supply the first time.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
So my husband did a placenta print on a page for us
and we just got rid of theplacenta your oldest son to his
little brother at home.
I know you delivered in thenight or in the early morning
hours, but how was that being athome and then introducing your
older son to his new littlesibling?
Speaker 2 (34:30):
So my older son was there, Syeda's partner was with
him.
They were hanging out.
We had a couch kind of in alittle sitting room off of our
bedroom so he was sitting on thecouch with Aaron and they were
playing Teenage Mutant NinjaTurtles.
He was so excited that he gotto play video games in the
(34:51):
middle of the night.
And he came over and he met hisbaby brother right after he was
born.
He said I didn't know he'd beso messy and then walked away
and then loved on him once hewas cleaned up in the morning.
Just so cute.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
And I love just the imagery in my head new
generation of little boysgrowing up to be men.
He's going to remember that andhis foundation of seeing his
mother give birth in the powerthat holds, the power that we
have in creating our family andbeing a family and that core
value.
That's amazing.
(35:27):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
He, our oldest, is diagnosed with ADHD and
sometimes he can be extra energy.
He can be kind of over the topwith the energy bouncing all
around and everything.
In that moment he was so calm.
He walked up.
He looked at his baby brother.
He went oh, he's so cute, buthe's so messy.
(35:50):
Can I give him a kiss later,when he's cleaned up?
I'm like yeah, buddy, it's fine.
I have a photo where Aaron took.
I'm holding the baby.
He's standing next to the bedbehind me.
He's got his hands on hischeeks in this big like oh my
gosh face and his excitement.
You can just see it radiatingoff of his face.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
I love it, that's.
It's just beautiful Women likeyourself who are taking
ownership of what you want andtaking ownership of how you want
to live your life and bringlife into the world.
It's making waves and sharingyour story so other women could
hear it.
It's so important that you'redoing this, so I'm so glad
(36:30):
you're here and sharing thisstory.
I'm so happy to be here you're aphysician and from my
(36:51):
experience of working withphysicians obstetricians home
birth is a difficult topic totalk about and I'm curious in
your community, with yourcolleagues who are also
physicians, how was it receivedthat you were making a decision
(37:12):
to have a home birth and thenafterwards, after the home birth
happened, how was that received?
Speaker 2 (37:20):
For my closer friends .
They tend to be osteopaths,they tend to be functional
medicine providers, they tend tobe out-of-the-box thinkers and
for them they were just soexcited that I got what I wanted
For the wider community atlarge.
Sometimes it's still notreceived well.
Sometimes it's still notreceived well, but we all have
(37:43):
our own experience, we all haveour own bias.
And to be an OB provider, to bethe one that is the end-all
be-all who doesn't get to seethe easy home births who doesn't
get to see, you know, the womenwho decide to never experience
in-hospital care, the women whogo to birthing centers.
(38:04):
They don't get that experienceunless they pursue it and have
it on their own.
So I can't fault them for beingafraid for me.
But what I remember is that Idon't have to take on someone
else's fear and make it my ownon someone else's fear and make
(38:25):
it my own.
If I'm not afraid, if I'mreassured by the fact that my
home is 15 minutes from theclosest hospital, that hospital
has a NICU.
If anything were to happen, Iknow how to support.
My husband knows how to support.
We had people here.
We had the tools at home withus to bridge that 15-minute gap,
should anything happen.
(38:46):
That is within my comfort zoneand I can't ask someone else to
accept my risk tolerance.
What I can ask for them is thatthey respect my choice.
Right, I can't ask them toagree with it, but I can say
(39:06):
this was my choice, this was howI wanted my experience to go.
Can you find that happiness forme that everything worked out
well and most of them can dothat?
Speaker 1 (39:17):
I love for our listeners to learn more about
Latched, nourished and Thriving.
How did you come up with thisidea and how is it supporting
moms who are pursuing more of aholistic wellness for themselves
and their families?
Speaker 2 (39:30):
Yeah.
So after my first, myexperience was that I had a
harder time recovering than Icould have ever thought possible
.
So in my background, my history, I have a history of celiac
disease, autoimmune condition,and what I experienced was
flares of things that felt likemy celiac, even though I knew I
(39:52):
was still gluten-free.
What I experienced was a lot ofgut issues and brain fog,
fatigue.
All of these things that I knewhad to have an underlying cause
.
So I spent kind of four or fiveyears diving into the research,
looking at what women need fornutrition, what's happening in
(40:15):
the body during pregnancy thatchanges our physiology, changes
our metabolism, changes our geneexpression, and what I
discovered were a few things.
So the first is thatbreastfeeding women need almost
double the amount of protein astheir baseline.
So if we put women back on thesame diet and food plan that
(40:36):
they had, or worse, if werestrict, trying to bounce back,
we end up at a proteindeficiency.
And what do we know aboutprotein deficiency?
It leads to thin skin, hairloss, fatigue, brittle nails,
brain fog, muscle wasting, boneloss all the things that we
attribute to normal postpartumexperience.
(40:58):
The second was that all womenactually end up having leakiness
of their gut during pregnancy.
It's how our breast microbiomedevelops.
So during the third trimesterwe get opening of those cell
walls, we get bacteria that arepassed through our lymphatic
channels to get to the breastfrom our gut and that's how we
(41:20):
make our breast microbiome.
Well, if we don't repair, if wehave these traumatic
experiences, if we have highcortisol, which is a normal part
of pregnancy, all of it leadsto prolonged leaky gut.
So why are we seeing autoimmuneconditions?
Why are we seeing more womenfeel fatigued after birth?
(41:40):
Well, it's because we're notaddressing the gut and we're not
healing it in a way that mostcultures instinctively do.
So bone broth and well-cookedfoods and lots of micronutrients
are a big part of traditionalcultures, yet it's not something
we really practice here in theUS.
(42:03):
So how do we nourish the body ina way that repairs the gut, in
a way that actually meets allthe body's needs?
How do we look at things thatinterfere in this process, like
endocrine disrupting chemicalsand microplastics that are now
everywhere in our environment?
And how do we prioritizekeeping our health during a time
(42:25):
where our focus is on someoneelse?
And what I came up with werekind of three main things.
One, nutrition we nourish mamaright.
The second is we rebalancehormones and we detox in a way
that's safe for us and baby andthat's called our Detox Mama
program.
And third, we do it in acommunity of women who are
(42:47):
focusing on this together.
So I've built a community forwomen to come in to get all of
this information, to getadvanced functional medicine
testing, to get to the rootcause of why they're having
these issues in the first place.
And especially when we'retalking about women having
babies back to back to back.
(43:08):
Now that level of depletion justbuilds from pregnancy to
postpartum, to pregnancy topostpartum periods.
So how do we stop that cycle?
How do we intervene?
So how do we stop that cycle?
How do we intervene?
So that is what I do at LatchNurse Thriving.
I educate women, we havecourses, we have community, we
have group coaching programs andwe have the book.
(43:29):
So anything is accessible toanyone who needs the information
.
I've also recently started aprovider training program on how
to train postpartum providers,doulas, midwives, nurses on
these principles and how theycan implement them with their
patients, and that's called ourThrive Mama Method program.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
My perspective as a labor and delivery nurse.
I do see a lot of thinkingabout my patients and I'm seeing
a lot of women who are havingthe hormonal and endocrine
complications presenting intheir thyroid.
Is that also something you areseeing with?
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Yes.
So we know, we know thepostpartum period 90% of women
are going to have intrusivethoughts.
It's from the brain rewiring,it's from that neuroplasticity
and the new connections that arehappening.
We know that 60% of women aregoing to be deficient in
(44:32):
micronutrients, so we're lookingat iron, zinc, potassium,
magnesium.
We know that 20% are going togo on to develop a postpartum
thyroid issue and we know thatup to 70% are going to
experience some sort of hormonalimbalance.
And it's all because of, one,how we're treating women and,
(44:56):
two, the ecosystem that ourbodies are in right.
When we have microplastics inthe water, when we know that
100% of cord blood samples nowhave some sort of endocrine
disrupting chemical within them,those are inside our bodies to
get there in the first place.
We talk about women not detoxingtheir bodies during pregnancy
(45:21):
or breastfeeding.
But again, if we have thesecycles where we're back to back
to back, how long do we wait toprioritize our own health?
So I found a way for women tobe able to detox safely while
still breastfeeding.
A lot of it depends on our gutright.
Our gut is what we call phasethree of our detox process and
(45:45):
if we're not revamping andsealing and healing the gut,
we're not going to be able toeffectively remove things from
our body.
Well, what do we know abouttoxins inside a woman's body?
Is that they're fat soluble,and what is one of the biggest
things that we're mobilizing fatfor postpartum?
It's our breast milk.
(46:05):
We're going to concentratethose things in breast milk if
we don't figure out a way toremove them from our body.
So is that a reason why we'reseeing more protein intolerances
than ever?
Is it a reason why we're seeingmore eczema in infants than
ever?
I think so.
We don't have the research toback it up yet, but I know when
(46:27):
I work with people and we get amom's gut working well, most of
the time the things that they'rehaving and seeing in their
babies go away.
So when we prioritize our ownhealth as moms and their babies
go away, so when we prioritizeour own health as moms, we then
have the ability to pass on thathealth to our infants.
(46:47):
And we know from all of thestudies that a number one
predictor of a baby's futurehealth is their mother's
happiness.
I know for me, when I'm notfeeling well, I get cranky, I'm
not happy, I'm not the mom Iwant to show up to be as when
I'm inflamed right when my gutis off, when I've had gluten on
(47:07):
accident at a restaurant out fortwo or three days.
I don't feel like me.
That was most of my experiencemy first six months postpartum,
with my first, and until Ifigured this out and I figured
out how to heal my own gut and Ifigured out how to reseal the
gut barrier and I figured outhow to detox myself, I was not
showing up as the version of methat I wanted to be for my kids.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
For women who are postpartum but are six months a
year or more two years out andthey're interested in detoxing
the Detox Mama program, would itstill benefit them, even though
they're outside of thebreastfeeding phase?
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Absolutely.
The Detox Mama program teachesthe principles of detox in a way
that make it safe forbreastfeeding moms.
They're applicable at any pointin our life, but what I've done
with that program that's uniqueand different is that I've
pointed out all of the ways thatbreastfeeding moms can still do
things, and what herbals aresafe for them, what binders are
(48:12):
safe for them to use, what notto use and avoid in the products
that they're picking out, howto do it naturally through food
and through gut healing toprevent absorption of toxins.
And then how to look at ourenvironment to get the things
out of our environment that arethe biggest factors.
So I personally considerpostpartum up to two years.
So we know that you can stillbe developed with postpartum
(48:37):
anxiety and depression, to somewill say four years after birth.
So if we are still beingaffected, if our brain is still
changing and rewiring two yearsafter birth, we're technically
postpartum forever.
But the program is reallydesigned for moms in those first
two years after birth.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
To our listeners who are interested in learning more
about yourself, about your booksand your program.
How can they find you and howcan they learn?
Speaker 2 (49:05):
more.
So on our website we have achat feature.
I have uploaded a masterclasson there that kind of goes
through all of these pieces ofthe puzzle and they can register
for that and watch it for free.
The book is on our website.
It's also another great way toget the information and get my
thought processes as a prettylow ticket item.
(49:30):
So it's $9.99.
You get the PDF version, youget the ebook version and you
get the audio so you can listento it, consume it in any way
that you want.
And when people are ready toreally change, I offer a free
discovery call so that they canmeet me, so that we can talk
about if this will work for themor not and if there are ways
(49:50):
that they can get theinformation right that we can
kind of custom tailor theirpackage based on their needs.
So, whether that be justenrolling in the courses or
joining our membership programor joining our functional
medicine programs, we can talkabout what the best solution is
for them.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
I want to thank you for coming on to the show.
We have a common theme where wesay that birth is healing and
for the listeners, for the womenthat I'm interviewing talking
about birth, the transformationthat we go through.
It has been also healing formyself.
Listening to you and how you'resharing your story and the
(50:33):
experiences that I have beenthrough at bedside in the
hospital and hearing you speakyour truth has healed me in ways
that I can't even begin toexplain.
Thank you, stephanie.
Hey there, amazing listeners.
(50:58):
If you love what we do and wantto see our podcast grow, we
need your help.
By making a donation, you'll besupporting us and bringing you
even more great content.
I truly believe creating thisspace for women all across the
globe to share their story willallow us to collectively heal,
grow and become more empoweredin the space that we deserve to
(51:21):
be Motherhood, womanhood andhowever that looks and feels for
each and every one of us, everycontribution, big or small,
will make a huge difference.
If you can head over to supportus today, there's a link in the
bio to support the podcast.
From the bottom of my heart,thank you for being a part of
this journey to support thepodcast From the bottom of my
(51:42):
heart.
Thank you for being a part ofthis journey.
Thank you for listening.
Be sure to check out our socialmedia.
All links are provided in theepisode description.
We're excited to have you here.
Please give us a follow If youor someone you know would like
to be a guest on the show.
Reach out to us via email atinfo at maternalwealthcom.
And remember stay healthy,embrace your power and you got
(52:11):
this, thank you.
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